InstaDeep was founded in 2014 in Tunisia. In 2023 BioNTech acquired it for 636 million euros.
Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim started an artificial intelligence company that grew from Tunis to offices in London, Lagos, Cape Town and Kigali.
InstaDeep is a Tunisian startup specialising in artificial intelligence, founded in 2014 by Karim Beguir, an engineer with a degree in applied mathematics from New York University, and Zohra Slim, a technology enthusiast and former director of a digital communication agency. It is based in London and is now a subsidiary of BioNTech.
What it is known for
The company is particularly known for developing an early warning system for detecting COVID-19 variants. In 2019 it raised 7 million dollars in a Series A from AfricInvest and Effort Catalyseur, and in April 2021 became an official NVIDIA supplier.
A footprint across the continent
By 2024 it had offices in London, Paris, Tunis, Lagos, Dubai, Berlin, Boston, Cape Town, San Francisco and Kigali. In August 2022, with Google and the Tunisian Ministry of Industry, it organised AI Hack Tunisia, the largest AI and machine learning hackathon in the MENA region.
The exit
In January 2023 BioNTech acquired InstaDeep for 636 million euros. In September 2023 InstaDeep and GoMyCode launched an AI school in Tataouine, Tunisia, to train young professionals, and in 2024 it announced collaborations including one with Syngenta in agriculture.
For founders outside the big hubs, it is evidence that a deep-technology company can be built from North Africa and reach a global buyer.
